Mom's Christmas Eve cooking

My mom cooked us an amazing dinner for Christmas Eve.

Here's what she made:

Duck. I love duck. If there's duck on a menu, I don't have to read any further.

And this delicious pork roll.

And then there was this:

This is called Servietten Knödel or serviette dumplings in English, because it literally gets wrapped in a serviette, or rather a dishtowel if the Knödel is too big. I don't know if this recipe is exactly the same as the one my mom used, but it will give you an idea of what goes in this. I know my mom added some fresh parsley and you can spice it up anyway you like. Then it gets wrapped up, tied up and boiled in a pot of water. I liked it!

Of course there were vegetables on our plates too.

And then the dessert:

Roly Poly. It is my husband's favourite. A favourite of his family. And since he couldn't spend Christmas with his family my mom surprised him by getting the original family recipe from his mom and making it for Christmas. He was going to have seconds with the food, but then he saw what we made for dessert and decided he is going straight for dessert instead!

Served with custard. The prefect ending!

Munich

We've been enjoying the Christmas-time visit in Münich. I especially enjoy the shopping here, for some reason more than in Switzerland. And there are so many sales on now!

Anyway, I went jeans shopping again because I now decided that actually I do need a pair of skinny jeans to wear with my boots for winter. I'm enjoying wearing my boots here in the cold, it was not that big a thing in Cape Town.

We've also been trying on ski goggles/ glasses but haven't bought yet. I'm still deciding if I like skiing or not...

We had a lunch at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, just to remind ourselves that we don't have to hurry back there again. It's been three years and we must have forgotten why we prefer the Augustiner Brau. Hofbrauhaus is something to experience if you come to Munich but you don't have to go there twice.

Besides the shopping, we just enjoyed walking around the Christmas market in front of the Rathaus on Marienplatz. Beautiful.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2009 from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.



Or watch on vimeo by clicking here.

My first time skiing

We drove to Germany on Saturday to spend Christmas with my mom and Jürgen. Then yesterday Andre and I drove to Kitzbühel in Austria for a day skiing. I have never ever had skis on my feet or attempted any  other snow related sports. But I had to try since my husband was so excited about skiing.

We had a 3 hour private lesson in Kitzbühel with a great instructor. You'd think 3 hours is not a long time, but it was more than enough for me! I was really tired afterwards and by 9pm last night I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.

We started out learning how to stop which of course is very important and then how to do turns. Like going to the left or right to avoid other skiers. Also important! It was a very very gentle slope where we started.

We were just about alone there in the beginners area for about an hour and a half and then a whole group came with a trainer and I got really nervous. Silvia, our trainer, had just started taking me slightly higher up the slope so I was going just ever so slightly faster and I started feeling that I can't do this. We went for a lunch break at a cosy restaurant right there next to the beginner area.

After lunch I felt better and in the end managed to do 7 left/ right turns in one go. Andre had a great time since he's not scared like I am. There was a rope to hold onto which pulled you up the slope and Andre used this to go right to the top of our area and he did really well.

I thought I'd be falling all over the place but didn't fall once. It's actually not that easy to fall as the boots are quite tight around your ankles and keep you upright. I did have a few moments in the beginning where I thought, why on earth would anyone want to put these long uncomfortable things on their feet and then try and move on the snow?? But it was fun in the end :-)

More photos on facebook.

My new hairdresser

Today I found the person who will be doing my hair for the rest of our stay in Switzerland, however long that may be. What a relief! She is also South African, so "yay!" for not having to struggle with German. And she can do highlights and make it look natural just the way I like it. Just like my hairdresser in South Africa did it. Oh it feels good to have my hair back to normal again. Well normal like I like it. I didn't mean natural. I've had half a head of natural hair colour the past few months and even considered going slightly darker, but now I'm happy I didn't and that I have my highlights back :-)

So if you're looking for a hairdresser who will understand every English word you say and speak it back to you, give her a call! Or if you're not totally happy with your current hairdresser give her a call too. Here's her website. She will even come to you. If you live in Switzerland now of course!

Surfing in Munich's English Garden

Here is a video of the surfers in Munich's Englischer Garten which I told you about a few posts back.
You can also view it here on vimeo.


Surfing in Munich's English Garden from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

The Singing Christmas Tree in Zürich

Singing Christmas Tree, Zürich from Anneliese Mostert on Vimeo.

Zurich's Christmas Market

Yesterday we went to see the Christmas market at the Hauptbahnhof (main station) in Zurich. There were some nice stalls but the most impressive was the Christmas tree. It's really really big and decorated with Swarovski crystals and more Swarovski figures around the base. Beautiful and sparkly!

Some of the stalls selling colourful toys and Christmas decorations carved from wood.

It was freezing cold in the city with a little bit of wind blowing the icy cold off the snowy mountains. Andre took most of the pictures because I was too cold to take my gloves off!

We walked around a little bit after finishing the Christmas shopping but didn't last long in the cold and decided to go for cocktails and dinner to warm up inside a restaurant. Before leaving the cold streets we saw Samichlaus (or St. Nikolas) and his helper Smutzli handing out treats.

On the 6th of December Samichlaus brought treats like candy and cookies to the kids who have been good. But the naughty kids get carried away to the forest by Smutzli. He wears dark clothes and carries a broom of twigs to punish the children. Scary!!! Click here for more interesting info about this tradition and its origins.

Advent Calender

The good thing about not yet having kids: you get to open the advent calender windows AND eat the chocolates yourself! Enjoy it while you can!

Another weekend in Germany

Last week Friday I came home and Andre had received a lens he had rented for the weekend. A wide angle lens.

He still had some work to do before we could leave to go to Germany and so did I.

I had to work my way through a box of chocolates. That's hard work.

We arrived at mom and Jürgen's Friday evening. Saturday morning after breakfast we took the train to Munich. I had to be ready for a weekend of looking into this new lens. It makes you feel like a celebrity when you open the car door and someone takes your picture!

But soon it's not funny anymore.

We walked to the Englischer Garten where there was a Christmas market at the Chinesische Turm.

The plan was to try and keep Andre away from the shops. It was quite cold so we had sausage and then glühwein to warm us up.

The Englischer Garten is a very big park in the centre of Munich. It is bigger than New York's Central Park!

Here are some winter pictures of the park when I was there in December 2004. It looks different covered in snow.

We found some guys surfing in the garden! They've created this standing wave in the river and take turns to surf. It looks weird seeing guys walking down the street in the city in wetsuits with a surfboard under their arm! In the freezing winter!

They're not allowed to surf here...

Another Christmas market in Munich.

And the photographer is still doing his thing!

The Christmas market in front of the Rathaus in Munich was very busy. We just passed it quickly. We will go there again before Christmas and when it's a bit later in the day to see the Christmas lights.

We went for a beer at the Augustiner Brauhaus which is a warm and lively beer house. Well the guys had beer and us girls had hot chocolate.

Oberpolinger, a big BIG department store in Munich, had such a pretty light display outside. The colours kept changing.

I made Andre get a picture of the pink lights for me too!

The city was busy. I love this part of Munich. I like the atmosphere and I think the shops are way better than what we have here in Zurich.

We did end up going into one shop just before closing time. A camera shop of course for the photographers in the family. Here Andre is trying out another lens on me.

We had a great weekend! Thanks Ma and Jürgen! See you soon for Christmas!